Asha Amir
Asha Amir is a human fighter from the city of Zayyura, who is now a devotee of Ashosh. He meticulously reports all of his adventures and respects others who do so as well. Since he arrived in Mithrasia he has become well known as a brave and kind warrior who frequently risks his own life to save others, and is known to be one of the few people alive to have aided in the destruction of a Dread Lord. The other adventurers he has the strongest friendships with seem to be Sura Darzi, who hails from the same city, Ash-heart, whose death caused him to convert to his religion, Hedwig, whose reporting skills he greatly admires, Ash-hammer, brother of Ash-heart, and Marillith, the elven druid who recently ascended to godhood. Listed below are the AP reports he has posted in the Wyvern's Rest after every adventure since he arrived in Whitmouth. Asha's First Adventure A Failed Attempt to Fix the River pages were torn straight out of Asha's journal and pinned to the noticeboard Day One I joined a group of adventurers lead by Marilith, who seems very respected and well liked. I would do well to earn her respect. Her quest was to find the source of a substance poisoning the White River—a noble cause. The others in the party were a one-armed magician, a Dwarven artificer, and a man named Magpie with the word “traitor” branded on his forehead. He will bring us to no good. We at first tried to rent a barge from an unpleasant man named Ducky, but Magpie was unsuccessful in bartering an acceptable deal. In the end the one-armed magician Xeno simply bought a barge. Day Six The journey upriver has been long and uneventful. It has taken us five days to reach another sign of civilisation—a village of lizard folk, Marilith told me. And it was indeed! What strange folk. I couldn’t understand a word they were saying, but Xeno upset them by asking about a dragon and then threatening to eat some of them. We set off upriver again rather hurriedly. Many days later… The last several days were very unpleasant! Not long after leaving the lizard village we encountered a living swamp. I don’t know how else to describe it. It seemed acidic—Magpie lost a sword and I my chainmail armour. During the battle, the traitorous Magpie shot Xeno with a flaming arrow! I didn’t have time to help Xeno because I had to get Marilith—who had become a baby griffin—back on to the barge, and then rescue the dwarf, who had somehow become encased in ice, before he suffocated. The ungrateful bastard ran off to the barge, leaving me to the swamp monster, and I barely made it back before the barge escaped upriver. Xeno gave me a healing potion for the acid burns I had suffered. That night we managed to find a safe place to set up camp, but in the night we were attacked by frog men! This island is truly horrifying. They were clearly intending to eat Marilith (who had become a frog), so I tried to fight back, but one of them stabbed me a little. Magpie seemed to be attempting to bargain with them, or possibly conspire. Who knows? It matters little now, because Xeno, for reasons I cannot fathom, chose to turn himself and Magpie into dragons at that point. They crisped several of the frog men, nearly killing the rest of us in the process, stole all of the Dwarf’s gold, then squabbled with each other. I fled the second they turned their attention away, taking Marilith (who was now an armadillo) with me. After the dragons had flown away to burn the frog village we returned to the campsite to salvage what we could of the supplies. We found the dwarf alive but injured. We watched the dragons burn the village, then disappear. Then, as if the dragons weren’t bad enough, the ground shook and rumbled, the river dried up, and a volcano appeared where the frog village had been! Marilith surmises that Magpie attempted an elemental spell which backfired. We assumed both he and Xeno dead, and returned to Whitmouth, somewhat charred and unsuccessful. However, I now have a considerable sum of gold which I took along with the rest of Xeno’s supplies from the campsite (he didn’t need them anymore!) and Marilith has a book we found in his pack. To our surprise, we found Xeno alive in Whitmouth when we returned. Somehow he had escaped the volcano! He doesn’t seem particularly interested in seeing his gold returned, so perhaps I will use it to buy some new armour to replace that which I lost. Asha's Second Adventure Attempting to Eradicate Cultists again this report has been torn straight out of Asha's journal and pinned to the notice board Day One I joined an expedition to eradicate some Shadow Cultists from the West side of the island. The expedition leader was Gorm the Barbarian; like Magpie, he has “traitor” tattooed on his forehead. I will have to keep a close eye on him. The others are a druid, Menoliir, and another fighter, Roin. Gorm negotiated passage by sea to a location a day’s walk from the reported site of the cultist encampment. Day Fifteen The ship sailed away the second it had dropped us off, so we’re going to have to walk home. The druid scouted ahead and discovered that the camp was now abandoned, but another, larger encampment had been established further to the North. She counted thirty orcs and fifteen humans—it seems there are orcs aligned with the Shadow Cultists now. Day Sixteen The druid attempted to set fire to the encampment, but her elemental powers got away from her and instead she created a raging inferno and a massive earthquake. We had to retreat back to the beach to escape the fire, which engulfed much of the plain. The druid was thrown to the West. Day Seventeen We set off to find the druid after the fires died down. Unfortunately, we blundered into a small group of cultist orcs thanks to Roin’s poor scouting. Menoliir, in the form of a bird, arrived in time to warn us that there was a much larger group of cultists nearby. However, as soon as we had finished off the small group of orcs, several more arrived. One appeared to be a shaman. Menoliir used her elemental powers to freeze them and I tried to smash the shaman, but it turned out to be an illusion—he controlled the ice and attempted to trap us, but we all managed to escape the walls of ice just in time. While Menoliir faced him in battle, Roin and I tried to save Gorm, who had been attacked by a group of ten human cultists who had appeared out of nowhere. We managed to take out a few of them before the others put a black amulet around his neck, which he then smashed. It released some sort of blast which badly injured everyone in the vicinity and almost killed himself, but he pulled through and is now free of the “traitor” tattoo. Menoliir eventually triumphed over the shaman and burned him to a crisp. Unfortunately, breaking the amulet seemed to also release a strange shadow creature—a shade—which we felt we would be unable to face in our already badly injured state, so Roin and I picked up the barbarian and we returned to Whitmouth as quickly as we could. Spring 353 Ash-heart Banishes a Dread Lord Ash Heart gathered myself, Ghetsis, and Halfear the Paladin together on a quest to resurrect Mowakana and then find the Shadow Lord and kill him. It only took a few days to locate Mowakana’s heavily decomposed corpse and take it to the village of the Lizard Folk. It took some convincing, but eventually the Lizard folks’ elders agreed to help resurrect Mowakana. When he returned to life, however, he had been marked by the Shadows with the same dark tattoos as Magpie and Gorm had. This does not bode well, I fear. Mowakana and Ash Heart tried to convince the elder to lend them a gemstone which the villagers use to contact their god, but they refused. Before we left the village Mowakana visited his mother and Ash Heart cast Word of Recall so that if we got into too much trouble he could return us to the village. We journeyed for several days to reach a mountain range in which Ash Heart believed the Shadow Lord to reside. After about ten days of hard climbing we came upon mountains which were completely shrouded in dark clouds. Ash Heart, certain that the Shadow Lord hid within the clouds, summoned a furious storm in order to disperse them briefly to see what they hid. The storm was more furious than he had expected and, exhausted, we decided to rest for the night before journeying into the clouds. However, we had barely closed our eyes before a dragon attacked our camp. We had seen a few circling in the distance throughout the day, but did not expect them to attack us. Having never encountered a dragon before, I admit I was frozen in fear while Ash Heart talked to the dragon. Whatever he told it amused it greatly. It flew off, but I got the feeling that it was laughing at us. The next day, Mowakana summoned a celestial griffin to carry us down into the valley concealed by the clouds. The forest below was dying in the cold and heavy snows, and yet alive with moving shadows… the temperature dropped rapidly as we flew further into the valley. We saw camps filled with hundreds or maybe even thousands of cultists. Certainly it was an army large enough to wipe Whitmouth off the face of the earth. Eventually we came to an immense citadel made entirely of ice which encompassed five mountain peaks with a giant central tower. We landed on a platform near to the central tower, but as soon as we did the ice started to flow up the griffin’s legs. We managed to break it free of the ice, but all of us except Mowakana fell to the platform when the griffin took off. Ash Heart used Ashosh’s fire to melt the ice which was attacking us, which of course made the platform unstable. I escaped down the ramp by sliding down on my shield and Ash heart followed not long after. Mowakana, Ghetsis and Halfear were saved from falling by the griffin. At the base of the ramp I smashed through the ice wall and into a vast hall which took up the entire inside of the central tower. Sadly my shield was lost. Inside there were five platforms holding massive thrones extending out into the middle of the hall some way below us but far, far above the floor. I managed to grab onto a ledge before falling to my death, and even managed to grab Ash Heart by the beard as he followed me through the hole in the wall. But before I could swing him to the safety of the ledge he batted my hand away with a cry of “Not my beard!” and fell. Subsequently, I also lost my grip and fell. Luckily we both managed to catch onto the ice walls and haul ourselves to the relative safety of one of the ledges—only to find ourselves at the feet of a Shadow Lord. It must have been at least fifty feet tall, and unfortunately, it had noticed us. It attacked us with wind so cold that it burned, and I am certain we both would have died along with the three outside the tower had Ash Heart not first bravely given his life in order to force the giant creature to read its own name from his shield and thus be defeated. Ash Heart had been dragged into the void along with the Shadow Lord. His last act must have been to speak the Word of Recall before he disappeared, because we all suddenly found ourselves back in the village of the Lizard Folk, but Ash Heart was not among us. We were gladdened to learn that Ash Heart had in fact been raised from the void by his god, Ashosh, to serve him in heaven as an angel, and that the Shadow Lord was indeed trapped once again in the void… at least for now. Before we left the Lizard village, I promised the people there that I would make every effort to end their famine, starting by leaving them all the remaining supplies from our journey. I plan to provide them with more supplies after returning to Whitmouth briefly to recover from our adventure, but sending them supplies is only a short-term solution. I have left a map of the mountain range with the cartographer for any interested adventurers. I council great caution if you intend to explore it. Important things to note: -It should be assumed that there are at least four Shadow Lords remaining on Mithrasia. -There is an army of Shadow Cultists amassing in the Valley beyond the Clouds. -There are at least three dragons in the mountains beyond the Lizard village. -The Lizard Folk are starving to death and it is our fault for destroying the local ecosystem. I consider it our responsibility to find some way to repair the damage we have done. Summer 354 The Dragon Attack on Robard's Crossing A disaster has befallen Mithrasia; one entirely of our own doing. Robard’s Crossing has been utterly destroyed by storm, flood, and dragon fire. No sooner had we—Marillith, Mowakana, Ser Clemense, Zendri and I—set out on our quest to restore life to the river than we were forced to land at Robard’s Crossing and take shelter from a storm in the tavern, where we were joined by another party of adventurers which included Serin, a fellow fighter and a friend. We were sharing a drink in the tavern when a terrible voice boomed out a warning that vengeance was about to be taken for the murder of several dragons by adventurers from Whitmouth. All at once lightning began hitting the buildings with unnatural precision and force, demolishing them. The rain grew even heavier and the streets began to flood. A great earthquake, the worst yet, rocked the island. While several of the adventurers who had experience at fighting dragons tried to fend them off, those less capable of damaging them turned to evacuating the villagers and keeping them safe. Serin and I led several villagers to the hill behind the village, where they would be safe from the flooding. Not so safe, however, from criminals: A man named Cadeus attacked and killed one of the villagers under our protection. Serin leapt to the unfortunate villager’s aid, but was too late. She fought briefly with the highly dangerous Cadeus alone before Ser Clemense and I managed to help her. I pushed Cadeus into the flooding river, and the three of us turned our attention towards rescuing the several villagers still trapped in the river; Ser Clemense swam out to them with a rope tied to him, and Serin and I pulled him and the villagers back to shore. This worked well for a while, but as Ser Clemense handed us the last child he slipped into the river and was washed downstream. Serin and I chased after him, and found him in time to watch as he killed Cadeus—who had also managed to get ashore somehow—in self-defence. After that, we continued trying to help as many villagers as we could. We were foiled by snakes in the river, which poisoned me and Ser Clemense, but we were rescued by Serin’s ingenuity and Mowakana on a summoned griffin. By the time we had rescued the last of the surviving villagers, the other group had chased off the dragons. I expect the rest of the season will be spent trying to clean up the destruction and help the citizens of Robard’s Crossing. I have heard that the fortress was also levelled by dragons at the same time, and an Elvish settlement was attacked. Winter 354 The Future of Mithrasia season, after Aria’s party’s startling return to Whitmouth in the middle of a sermon in the cathedral, Asha does not post a report in the tavern as he usually does. Instead, he posts a simple warning: “I have seen the future. The Dread Lords of Shadow are gathering their strength and growing in number. We must put all of our efforts into destroying the threat they pose before they engulf the entire world in darkness and cold. We must set aside our differences with the other inhabitants of Mithrasia and join together to defeat the Dread Lords before it is too late!” for the first time anyone can remember, Asha will stay and actually drink in the tavern, fidgeting absently with the glove covering his right hand. If anyone should care to buy him a drink, he will tell the following tale. “We—Aria, Mowakana, Ghetsis, Zendri and I—we set out to ensure that the Dread Lord trapped on the Isla del Luna volcano island. However, when we entered the cave from which the magic saturating the island seemed to be emanating, we instead found ourselves struck by some sort of magical trap. When we recovered from the aftereffects of the blinding light, we noticed that the cave looked much more worn than it had. Before we could really do anything, a voice from the entrance challenged us. “Halt, evildoers!” cried the oddly dashing silhouette. As he strode closer, we recognised him—Arthur Guilder Blackwick the Third. Although… he looked much older than when I had last seen him, and was now missing an eye. When we convinced him that we were not, in fact, evildoers, he introduced himself—as the Governor of Whitmouth! We eventually realised that, impossible though it seems, the five of us had somehow been transported about a decade into the future. And it was not a pleasant future, as we were soon to discover. Arthur explained that the Shadows had won. Whitmouth is the last bastion in the entire world holding out against their forces. When we exited the cave, Arthur pointed out the moon—it was shattered into pieces, all still floating in the sky. He later told us that when a Dread Lord took over the settlement at Robard’s Crossing, the wizard Xeno had defeated it by dragging a shard of the moon out of the sky, shattering it in the process. All that is left of Xeno, Robard’s Crossing, and the Dread Lord, is a massive crater. We accompanied him back to Whitmouth, where he gave Aria, Zendri and I a detailed account of the Shadows’ victory. We decided that we had to get back to our present to make sure this future could never come to pass. Our discussion was interrupted by an alarm bell signalling a Shadow attack, so the Governor—I mean, Arthur—sent us to the house of this future’s Zendri, where we could find enough magical artefacts to power a spell to return us. While Mowakana searched for a wizard to help perform the spell and Ghetsis aided with the city’s defense, Aria, Zendri and I found the house an hour or so from the city walls—the sound of battle and death from Whitmouth could still clearly be heard—and Aria and Zendri found their way inside. Meanwhile, I stood watch outside. I was attacked by a colossal shadow monster—at least ten feet tall—and had little choice but to fight it. It picked me up and tossed me like a ragdoll, breaking my arm. Zendri and Aria joined the fight at that moment, but when the shadow creature summoned two more of its kind they retreated inside the house, leaving me to face it on my own. I managed to destroy it, but my sword—which once belonged to my grandmother, the fiercest warrior in all of the Endless Sands—was destroyed. The battle also left me too injured to fight the lesser shadows the monster had summoned. Luckily, Aria rejoined the battle before they could kill me, but her explosive attack further injured me. She made up for this by casting a powerful healing spell which even knitted the broken bones in my arm. Zendri had already found the magical artefacts we needed, but I needed a new sword before I risked the journey back through the forest. A sword locked in a display case almost called to me, and it promised to help me defeat the shadows, so I took it with me. listeners might notice that Asha is not, in fact, carrying a sword at all, which is odd; he is normally never without one. We returned to the future Whitmouth and the Governor- I mean, Aurthur, organised for the ritual spell to be cast. Mowakana had found his future self to help with the ritual. As we vanished back to the present we saw Whitmouth overrun, and the gov- I mean, Arthur, giving his life to hold back the tide of darkness.” anyone asks him when he’s slightly more sober, he’ll give more details about the future. “After the second Dread Lord got out no one managed to stop it because everyone was too busy with other things. Some dragons razed large parts of Whitmouth in further retaliation. It would be wise to warn them of the coming danger and forge an alliance with them as soon as possible to prevent this from happening. There was a Serpent attack east of the river. Again, we should focus on allying with the other races instead of fighting them. Something odd happened with the White River—Arther refused to tell us what, exactly. Something about plausible deniability. As more Dread Lords were freed, the ice spread faster and faster. A group of adventurers killed one of the last dragons, destroying what could have been a valuable ally, all for the hoard of gold it guarded. There were reports of war in the Imperium against shadows, and then all communication ceased. There had been no word from the mainland for years. There was only one dragon left, and it allied itself with Whitmouth simply because there was no other option for it. The outpost at Robard’s Crossing fell to a Shadow Lord, but it was defeated by Xeno, of all people. The reckless git threw a bit of the moon at it, but died along with it.” Spring 354 Retrieving the Timepiece of Inevitability I convinced the Governor (who is a very lovely person, and not to be crossed, ever, but also very forgiving of small omissions of truth in the interest of helping Whitmouth, I hope) to release Xeno on the condition that he helped us defeat a Dread Lord, which he did. In fact, he killed one—as did I. We set off from Whitmouth along with Hedwig, Wednesday and Seraphine, then we travelled to Dis with the help of Xeno to find weapons to help us defeat the Dread Lords. Not long after we appeared, Seraphine was summoned by her god, the Inevitable, and ordered to go to the Void and retrieve the Timepiece of Inevitability, without which Dis was falling into the Void. Some of the Sultana’s guards told us that there was a Summit which all of the gods were attending, including the Inevitable and the Shadow. At Draco’s Emporium we bought some useful items (thanks to Xeno’s apparently endless supplies of both coins and apathy towards money). We then headed towards the Sultana’s Palace, where the wizards and cleric got licenses to use magic. They then, foolishly, requested to enter the Summit, where Seraphine and Xeno blabbed about our mission to go to the Void. The Shadow immediately left, declaring the Summit to be over—it turned out that the entire Summit, all of the gods from every plane of existence, was all in the interest of distracting the Shadow while we entered the Void to retrieve the Timepiece of Inevitability. Since we had foolishly alerted the Shadow to the plan, we had no choice but to make all haste to get there before the Shadow could make too many preparations for our arrival. The Inevitable and the Sultana gave us each a Void Ring which would make us immune to the chilling effect of the void and the Shadow (unless a Shadow creature attacked us directly, as we found out). Xeno opened a way into the void for us, but was unable to recall the spell to get us home again. After fighting a Shadow hunting party, Xeno turned into a dragon and carried us to a Shadow Citadel similar to the one in the Southern Mountains, which lay in the centre of a Shadowy mimicry of Dis. He turned into a smaller dragon, approximately the size of a small shoe, and I broke through the wall of the tower. Xeno made a light which promptly flickered out—leaving us with only the briefest glimpse of the inside of the tower, which was ringed with at least five hundred Dread Lords. We were frightened by what we saw, but nevertheless the others headed upwards to where they could sense the Timepiece of Inevitability. Meanwhile, I was guided downwards by Ashosh, to where the Ash-heart’s Spear lay on the throne of a Dread Lord at least five times the size of any other. With astounding amounts of luck, I managed to retrieve the spear, and Wednesday levitated me to the top of the tower where we fought two Dread Lords who were guarding the Timepiece. The Dread Lords were tangible here, which made them a little easier to fight. Xeno dispatched one of them, and I slayed the other, and then the three wizards teleported us back to Dis. The Inevitable rewarded us by allowing us to keep the five Void Rings, and he also regrew Xeno’s missing arm. Summer 355 Treaty with the Dragons Zendri, Elanthiir Miller, Menoliir, a young Wizard whose name shall be kept off the record, and I answered the Governor’s request for the dragons to somehow be brought to our side in the war against the shadows. While the Governor seemed to think we would have to force the dragons to join us by defeating their leader, we decided to take a more diplomatic route. We flew to the mountains in the South, which are completely covered in ice, and landed in the forest below the foothills. It took us a couple more days to walk to the base of the mountains, where we found some caves. They seemed to be the best chance to find some dragons… and it didn't take us long to find one. As soon as Zendri lit a torch we saw a huge dragon perched in the tunnel, watching us. However, it agreed to lead us to a dragon we could negotiate with after the Wizard gave it a pretty rock. It led us to a cavern where there were many, many dragons in a negotiation with a group of Shadows. Menoliir destroyed them, but failed to keep control of the elements. I think the dragons found this more amusing than anything else, though. Eventually the dragons agreed to side with Whitmouth against the Shadows, and aid in the upcoming assault we are planning for this winter, if we promised to stop killing dragons and make the penalty for murdering a dragon death. They also required us to return our dragon-hide armour, which I did willingly. Zendri required more convincing, demanding to duel a dragon which he seemed to have met before. The dragon agreed, and they had a sort of spectacular mid-air fight. I foolishly lent Zendri Sura’s Icewall Orb for the fight to defend him against the fire, but he took the first opportunity to throw it in the dragon’s mouth. The Wizard managed to teleport it back out of the dragons’ stomach, but it was all covered in dragon goop. Sura is going to kill me… Eventually Zendri won the battle and gave up his dragon-hide armour, and we were allowed to leave in peace. I think the dragon is bound to obey Zendri for a year and a day now. I hope he treats it well, because its parents may come looking for him if he doesn't. On our way back to Whitmouth we were attacked by a group of shadows. We dispatched them quite easily, but then had to face a wolf pack called by Menoliir. I hate dogs! But the wolves weren't really all that scary, and we also dispatched them with ease. We returned to Whitmouth and received a small reward for our efforts from the governor. I hope that the Governor will choose to agree to the dragons’ terms for the alliance. Gorm's Trial I was called as a witness by the Lawbringer Rislev. Standing in front of what must have been half the population of Whitmouth and a high priest who could sense lies was a nerve-wracking experience. I was asked if I had ever been possessed by the shadows, and told them that I had not--although a lesser shadow once tried to infect me, I fought it off. I believe that Gorm could have controlled his actions if he had tried, and so I think he should have received a harsher penalty than he did. Seraphine and several others seemed to share my opinion, but others, such as Hedwig and Kayla, believed his actions were not his own. Either way, it matters little. I hear he died fighting pirates... perhaps he redeemed himself in the end for all the chaos and destruction his actions have caused? Autumn 355 Restoring the River Rislev led a mission to restore the meteor to the White River. As repairing the river is something I have been hoping to have a chance to do for many seasons now, I joined him, as did the druid Nils, the wizard Tyar (newly arrived on the island), and the brave and noble Dwarven wizard Hedwig. It took us two weeks to make our way up the river to Mount Magpie, as we were held up by a skirmish with giant spiders and Rislev’s poor navigational skills (he’s a good ally to have in battle, but I think he is not so good at boats). When we reached the shore of the lake below Mount Magpie we were attacked by a giant construct beast seemingly made entirely of patches of flesh. It was truly an abomination of nature. Fortunately, between us we managed to dispatch it quickly, although I very nearly drowned in the process—I have Nils to thank for my continued health. We then followed some strange birds made of leaves—Nils assured us they were friendly—to a small valley where frogmen were worshipping something that Rislev described as an almost overwhelming evil. There was another fleshbeast monstrosity, this one several times larger than the last. While Rislev, Hedwig, and the others went to try to convince the frogmen to allow us to return the meteor to the river, I made use of the distraction they caused to get to the fleshbeast and attack it by jumping onto its back and stabbing it. After that battle quickly ensued, and Hedwig aided me in defeating the fleshbeast (she is very brave, helping me even though she was badly injured). Seeing me emerge victorious from battle with the giant fleshbeast, the frogmen lost heart and many ran away, which gave us time to help Nils, who was in the form of a giant stone wyrm, drag the meteor up along the river bank. When Rislev slayed the frogman cleric the last of his followers broke ranks and fled, leaving us free to carry away the meteor. Then we found a strange and wondrous thing! There was a grove amongst the snow and ice in the mountains where it still appeared to be Summer. The birds made of leaves led us there, and we found a perfect place had been prepared for the meteor to sit at the very source of the White River. Even more wondrous, we found Marillith in the grove! She appears to have entirely become a god now, and though she did not speak to us, I feel comforted to know that such a force for peace and good exists on Mithrasia.